100 Books!

Today, I hit my first Newbery milestone: I have read 100 books off the list.  I have ordered several books from the local library so I hope to be posting more completed Newbery years soon.

Notable Authors: Nancy Farmer

I discovered Nancy Farmer in my Children's Literature college course.  The Ear, The Eye and the Arm was on the book list for the course so I picked it up after hearing how great it was from one of my classmate's book talks.

I encourage you to go to Nancy Farmer's website and read her bio.  She spent a great deal of time in Africa so many of her early books are set there.  She also has dyslexia.  Her first book published in the United States, Do You Know Me, won her $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts.  She has also won Newbery Honors for The Ear, The Eye and the Arm (1995), A Girl Named Disaster (1997), and The House of the Scorpion (2003).  I feel she was a bit "robbed" in the Newbery category because I feel all three books are deserving of the medal.  Oh, well.

One of the things I love about this author is that each of her books is uniquely different.  You can also tell that she has researched the subjects that she writes about because she uses a lot of details and often has a list of sources that she used for the book.


Do You Know Me
Plot: Uncle Zeka comes to live with Tapiwa and her family after his village is destroyed and has a strange way of doing things.
My rating: 4 stars


The Ear, The Eye and the Arm
1995 Newbery Honor Book
Plot: In futuristic Zimbabwe, General Mitzika's children are kidnapped by She Elephant when the leave the house and The Ear, The Eye and the Arm are hired to find them.
My rating: 4 stars


The Warm Place


A Girl Named Disaster
1997 Newbery Honor Book
Plot: Nhamo runs away from home to escape a forced marriage.
My rating: 4 stars


The House of the Scorpion
2003 Newbery Honor Book
Series: Matteo Alacran #1
Plot: Matteo is the clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord.  When he is discovered by the other children, he is sent to live in the big mansion with El Patron.
My rating: 5 stars


The Lord of Opium
Series: Matteo Alacran #2


The Sea of Trolls
Series: Sea of Trolls #1
Plot: Jack and his sister Lucy are kidnapped by Vikings in post-Roman Britian.
My rating: 3 stars


The Land of Silver Apples
Series: Sea of Trolls #2
Plot: Jack goes on a journey with several companions after the Need Fire ceremony goes wrong.
My rating: 4 stars


The Islands of the Blessed
Series: Sea of Trolls #3
Plot: Jack, Thorgil, the Bard and the Tanners return to Bebba's Town
My rating: 4 stars

New Page: Notable Author List

I updated the Newbery List the other day because the 2014 list had just come out.  This year, Kate DiCamillo won the Newbery Medal for the second time, a feat that has only been accomplished a few times.  Out of curiosity, I went back through the list to see who had won multiple times.  I also looked to see which authors had won one medal but also had one or more honor books and which authors had had multiple honor books but had never won the Medal.  Both of those lists were much longer than I expected.  I compiled all of it into a new page on this blog, titled "Notable Author List."

I hope to "spotlight" some of these authors in the posts to come.

Series: Little House

Book Series:  Little House
Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Laura Ingalls and her family move to several different locations as American pioneers.  After living in Wisconsin, Kansas and Minnesota, they finally settle near a town in Dakota Territory.
Books:

1. Little House in the Big Woods
2. Little House on the Prairie
3. Farmer Boy
4. On the Banks of Plum Creek
5. By the Shores of Silver Lake
6. The Long Winter
7. Little Town on the Prairie
8. These Happy Golden Years
9. The First Four Years
10. On the Way Home
11. West from Home

Overall Rating: 3 stars

This is rather famous and iconic book series and I thought that I should definitely mention it on this blog because five of the books on this list received Newbery Honors.  The last three books of the series were published posthumously (that means after the death of the author).  The First Four Years was found as an unedited manuscript and On the Way Home and West from Home are based on letters and journals written by Laura. 

I found a few interesting on Wikipedia as I was researching a bit about the author.  I will have to see if I can verify these tidbits since Wikipedia can be very reliable yet also very very wrong.  The first is that Laura changed the order of events slightly from how they actually happened and omitted a few places where they resided.  Apparently, the family moved to Kansas when Laura was 2 and then moved back to Wisconsin so her age in the book may be slightly different from the actual age that Laura was when the events took place.  This is why I categorize the book as "historical fiction" instead of a "biography." 

The other tidbit is that there are a few theories of how the books were actually written.  One theory is that Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter, was Laura's ghost writer and wrote the books herself.  Another theory is that Laura wrote the initial manuscript and Rose heavily edited it and submitted it to the publisher.  The second theory seems to explain why The First Four Years reads so differently from the first eight books in the series. 

In any case, this series is a classic and I highly suggest reading it at least once.  Boys who hesitate to read the series because it is focused on a girl, should start with Farmer Boy, a story about Almanzo Wilder (who will later marry Laura).  These books also make excellent read a louds, making them accessible to younger readers who may be more interested in the books' content.

Series: The Giver

Book Series: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot: Jonas begins life in the community but when he turns 12 everything changes.  In a different village, Kira finds life hard after the death of her mother but discovers her hidden talent. 
Books:

1. The Giver
2. Gathering Blue
3. Messenger
4. Son

Overall rating: 4 stars

Lois Lowry waited a long time to write the last three books in this series so originally, The Giver was very open-ended, leaving the reader wondering the fate of Jonas.  Gathering Blue was originally billed as a "companion" novel since Kira's life had nothing to do with Jonas.  Messenger and Son tie the two books together and finally resolve Jonas' fate.  Son is more of a parallel novel, beginning during the original book and ending after Messenger.

This series is not for the faint of heart, tackling many ethical and moral issues along the way. 

Banned Books Week: The Hunger Games

This week, in honor of "Banned Books Week," I will be taking a look at some of the books that I have read that fall into the "banned" category.  For me info on the different books that have been banned, check out this site: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10



Book series: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot: Katniss replaces her younger sister as tribute in a fight to the death between 24 young tributes.  The Games are punishment for a rebellion against The Capital.
Books:

1. The Hunger Games
2. Catching Fire
3. Mockingjay

Reasons why it is "banned:"  anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence
My overall rating: 4 stars

This book series has gained immense popularity and acclaim but has stirred up some controversy.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it but I can see why some people might want to ban it. 

Anti-ethnic:  This had never occurred to me.  Looking back, most of the characters are white, although Rue is described as dark skinned.  With the nature of the current state of affairs, a widespread ethnic cleansing or ethnic flight would not have surprised me which may explain why most of the characters are white.  I don't think it's necessarily wrong to have only one ethnic group in your writing. 

Anti-family:  I'm not sure why this is a reason either.  Katniss is in a single parent family.  The love of her sister puts her into the arena in the first place.  The conditions in which the normal people live are pretty appalling so it's not a surprise that families aren't always perfect.  Unless they're referring to the fact that families are ripped apart by the games. 

Insensitivity:  The book is set in a hostile world so there is a bit of insensitivity.  It comes with the territory.

Offensive language:  There's a bit but I don't remember it bothering me much.  I've seen worse.

Occult/satanic:  I don't remember any elements of this in the book at all. 

Violence:  This is about the only true reason I can find in this whole list.  The book is very violent.  Children die.  My husband refuses to read the book because of the violence against children.  The point of this book is to show a revolution and revolutions are generally bloody.  However, it is not senseless violence, the violence does have a teachable meaning behind it.  I'm not sure if that makes it any better.

As a parent, I have no qualms about reading this book to my children but I would probably wait until they were middle schoolers.  It opens up a lot of discussion points that I think are important. 

Dune is a YA Novel?

A friend of mine posted an article last week on Facebook that I found interesting.  It's title: When Did Dune Become a YA Novel?

The author of the article was surprised when he found out that Dune, the classic and complex science fiction novel by atheist Frank Herbert, was considered a Young Adult (YA) novel.  After some further research, he discovered that the American Library Association (ALA) defines YA as anything that 12-18 year olds are willing to read, a definition that he finds "squishy."

I had always thought that YA literature was, well, literature aimed at young adults.  Literature with slightly more complex and mature themes compared with "Children's literature."  Literature that was "safe" for young adults to read.  Needless to say, this changes my approach. 

Under this definition, if 12-18 year olds are reading say, Fifty Shades of Gray, it becomes "YA Literature."  This is something I think parents and teachers need to be on the look out for.

Censorship and the banned book list is a rather complex topic that should be saved for its own post.  However, as a parent and pre-service teacher, I think there are books that are not appropriate for children and young adults to read.  I do think the "banned books" advocates take it to the extreme (I recently found out that Green Eggs and Ham is on the banned list, seriously?). 

What I think we can take away from all of this is that "YA" does not necessarily equal "safe."  Parents should always know what their children are reading and take appropriate steps from there.  Know the content of the books your child is reading.  If you haven't read the book, Google it.  Wikipedia and Goodreads can easily get you a synopsis.  Knowing the content helps you open a dialogue about the appropriateness of the book or, if it's too late for that, discussing the questionable content of a particular book.  After all, knowledge is power.